Kigongo is right; farming is not for the rich

The roosting party, National Resistance Movement (NRM), national vice chairman Moses Kigongo has told peasants and other poor people off farming, saying it only serves the interests of the rich. Kigongo, who recently defended his wealth as coming from his own visionary ability to understand that he can simply supply his own hotel chains with foodstuff from his vast farms is reading this and seething like a viper that just watched as a crow picked its young one for a meal.
Kigongo is going to charge that this page is misquoting him, that he only boasted about politics being for the rich, but if he can sit down, he will realise that this page is only seeing further ahead. We have no reason to misquote Kigongo, but we have every reason to try and understand his utterances.
We were going to ask, what is for the poor, Bwana Kigongo? Sports betting? Working on your farms? But then we thought of Kigongo’s vast farms and glib tongue, and we realised that what he meant was not politics but farming. Yes, farming, like politics, is all about sharing—picking resources from one field and giving to another field depending on how they are fertile and willing to grow votes in return for your favour.
Like this chap who turned up at police offices calling himself the ‘first son’ of the IGP. He extorted officers greedy for promotion, lunched on their turkey and chicken gifts and picked their money for his malwa and betting pleasure. He was caught and is currently caged for exercising clever politics of picking resources from greedy men in uniform and helping his stomach on it.
If the IGP were half serious, he would have all the officers who offered the inducements to seek promotions arrested and subjected to hard labour in a stone quarry for being corrupt and a nuisance. If Kigongo really meant politics not being a thing for the poor, how can he explain how a peasant chap conned law enforcers like that? The chap preyed on the politics of promotion in Uganda to eat some sumptuous meals for days and that is the mark of politics.
Many think that Kigongo is not right to claim that farming is not for the poor, but just look around you. Pick the first rich public servant and ask them to account for their wealth, ask any politician… in fact, if you are looking for names beyond Kigongo, we can refer you to Margie Muhanga. Ask her about her wealth. She will talk about the legendary goats. Ask Gen Saleh and he will talk about his farms.
Even this rabid grey-brittled General called Kasirye something, he burnt a tractor or so on you know what, his farmland. Yes, you can beat a politician in polls, they will quietly retire to eating baking powder like Gen Otafiire. They won’t make any noise beyond petitions. But step into a farm owned by any of these roosting members and you will be handled like Manchester City visiting Anfield Road.
The other day, this General apparently released dogs the size of Museveni’s cows on someone who dared stray on his farmland. We don’t know if there are dogs the size of Museveni’s cows, but we won’t doubt since the owner of those dogs is a General in the roosting party and also on account of Muhanga’s goats that could fetch billions of shillings on the market. And Muhanga is also in the roosting party.
In 2016, there was this poor thing called a python. Hungry and looking for food, it strayed into Kisozi ranch, that place where the ‘Leopard’ does his water bottle things as proof of his being a model farmer. The hungry thing was looking for some rats to constrict on. Rather than call Uganda Wildlife Authority to preserve the python or even be generous and serve it a rabbit or some sorry goat, the guards served the python bullets.
Many years ago when that Kisozi ranch belonged to all Ugandans, pythons also exercised their rights of preying for food on that farm. They weren’t shot dead on sight. But that farm is no longer for the poor people, it is for a politician. You stray, you die.
Now, if politics is not for you because you are poor, what is there for you when the rich use farming as their excuse for wealth?